A Truth Realized
by Soren2526
Summary: Set during the events of Spirit Wolf and the death of Soren, Streak discovers the truth about himself and his family.


A Truth Realized

It all started over a moon cycle ago with the death of the King. I learned these truths from Pelli and I now share them to you.

- begining of flashback-

I heard there was a parliament meeting going on down below, so I snuck out and headed for the roots. I found the tunnel leading down below the chamber two weeks prior and used it constantly. But that isn't important, for what was happening in the meeting was. The Milkberry Harvest Festival was approaching, and being double-chawed in weather and colliering, I was to be helping out a ton.

The meeting ended about half an hour later, but something was wrong. Soren was speaking, but suddenly he stopped. A thump of him hitting the floor soon registered in my ear slits and a clamor of activity resonated down to my listening post.

'They must be taking the King to the infirmary, I guess.' I thought to myself.

After a couple of minutes, I walked out of the roots and spiraled up to the infirmary. It was packed with the King's sister, mate, and children and their mates. About a dozen Tytos were standing around his croft, hoping that he would live. He managed to give a short speech, broken up by coughing, to Pelli and the rest. After he finished, he stopped breathing and died. I could see most of his family starting to tear up, except Pelli. She was crying for her mate to return, to breath once again, to be alive. The rest of us filed out, leaving Pelli with the body of Soren.

When the Final Ceremony was held, it was a beautiful sunset, made slightly depressing by the body of the King lying on thr mound of milkberry branches. I politely made my way to the front of the massive crowd, to be near such a noble owl one last time. Pelli plucked a single primary feather to remember her mate and then lit the fire. At first I watched the smoke rising up into the darkening night, but after a while, I told myself this:

'Look into the fire, the flames. Read them, see what you see.'

What Insaw could only be described as chaos. The Sacred Ring was swallowed up by a glacier, with most of the Watch killed. Earthquakes shook the Beyond, tearing it up, reshaping it. Only a single owl, a Masked Owl, survived. Only a few wolves lived. One was male, and for some reason, I thought he was special. Another was a female with a single glittering green eye. Two others were females, possibly the male wolf's sisters. This group started heading northwest, to the edge of the Sea of Vastness.

By this time, I was the only owl still standing by the fire. Talons scratching on the soil snapped me out of my trance. Pelli was walking up to me.

"You know, you look a lot like Soren. Your face, the glint in your eye, everything." She said, sadness filling her voice.

"I do?" was all I could respond.

"Come to my hollow, young'un. Seeing you finally made the connection that I've had for quite a while."

I could do nothing but follow. After landing inside, she settled down in her nest, depression filling her dark brown eyes.

"The reason I said that down at the fire is because I know a terrible secret about Soren, and of you. Before I came here, Soren already had a mate. She was killed by an assassin just before the previous king, Coryn, retrieved the Ember. But, before she was killed, she had laid a single egg. That egg, fathered by Soren, was given to another family in the Tree."

I was shocked by this. I had always thought of Dylan and Miriam as my parents.

She continued.

"I had arrived at the Tree, and seen that Soren was one of the few single male Tytos. We met, rather awkwardly, and soon got to know each other better. By the time Coryn arrived at the Tree as the first embered monarch in a thousand years, I had laid three eggs and Soren and I were blessed with three beautiful daughters a couple of weeks later. I found out from Miriam that you hatched two days prior. She and Dylan had decided to name you Streak, after one of the eagles from Ambala.

"Miriam and I kept our separate ways for the most part, except for when chaw tapping began. You had been double chawed in weather and colliering, and learned a large amount from my mate. In fact, on your first colliering mission is when you discovered you had firesight."

I remembered this quite fondly, for I managed to harvest three glowworms that trip.

"Soren was estatic, having an owl in his chaw with firesight. Bubo appreciated the high quality coal being harvested, as did his apprentice. Soren always came back to our hollow after chaw practice with some new praise for you, because of your skills. Nothing really happened until the chaw was ambushed by the Barrens border. You were blinded in one eye and a Pygmy was killed. I think that was Primrose's daughter.

"Miriam and I met up a day or two after the ambush, to discuss family. You were nearby, getting used to your reduced vision when I first noticed how much you looked like Soren. I mentioned this to her and she agreed. She knew already why, but didn't say."

I stood there speechless. My past, which I thought I knew almost everything about, was being rewritten. Even though I thought of Dylan and Miriam as my parents, Soren was my father. My thoughts were interrupted by Pelli starting to speak again.

"Almost a year later, you and three others were inducted into the parliament. Soren saw the resemblance between you and him finally, and waited patiently to send you on a mission, mostly to keep you away from him, your true father, but also to do reconnaissance. He waited a long time, but he did send you out. If it wasn't for the Sark in the Beyond, your blind eye would have become infected and you would have died, leaving your mate a widow with four chicks to deal with. You did come back, almost a full moon cycle later. By then, Soren was really ill. He slept constantly, ate almost nothing, and was incredibly weak.

"And now we arrive at the present, with me telling you this, so that when I pass on, it doesn't weigh me down."

All I could mutter was "I'm a prince?"

-end flashback-

"Now that I told you this, does your opinion of me change, dear?" I asked Lori.

She responded in a near poetic manner.

"Of course not. I love you for bring you, not for being a prince or a king."

-two years later-

It was a sad time at the Tree as the news that Queen Pelli had died. She passed peacefully, playing her harp. With her death, a slight problem arose as to who was the next monarch, but that's another story for another time.


End file.
